Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
I want to start this blog post off with my thoughts and reaction to this video first, rather than last. This man is like no other. Randy has cancer and I would have not known if he didn’t say something about it in the beginning of his lecture. He never once played the “pity” card and he joked about his sickness a few time as well. I do not know many people with cancer who joke about it. I thought he was an excellent speaker and what got me the most was towards the end of his lecture when he sang happy birthday for his wife and he ended the entire lecture by stating the lecture was not for the people attending, but for his kids.

I found his teaching methods he used at Carnegie Mellon University quite interesting. My personal favorite was the “head fake”. It is almost tricking a child to learn something else that they do not expect. The example Randy used in his lecture was football. Parents do not put their children in football to actually play the sport; they do it so the children can learn life lessons and skills. The child thinks he or she is learning football, but really, they are learning how to be a team player, how to communicate with others, how to work together, etc. I think this technique is brilliant and is used more often than people realize. Teachers can use this in the classroom multiple times. One idea that pops into my head is for a group project. The child thinks they are only learning what the project requires, but in reality, they are learning much more.

I also found his technique of not using books and only technology in his classroom extremely relevant to this class and the future. Students seem to learn more when learning from the teacher rather than the book. Students also have more fun learning this way as well. Book work can get repetitive and old quite fast, so staying away from that technique is best. Instead of finding busy work for students to do in a textbook, engage them with an activity that is both fun and educational.

One thing I noticed was that Randy’s entire class was based on projects. Projects are a fun way for students to learn which is why I think he based his class on this. He also mentioned it was another “head fake”. I’m not sure I would want to base my entire class on projects. Although, I will try to assign as many projects into my class to show that learning can be fun.

The last technique that stuck out to me was that he learned from his students. Randy did not know what to expect in the first few years of his teaching so he let the students take the reins with the projects that he assigned. He learned many things including ideas for projects for future students. I think everyone should open up to the idea of allowing the students to teach the teachers. I cannot wait to see all of the interesting things that my future students will teach me.